I’m Pretty Sure Your Mobile Marketing Strategy Isn’t Good Enough

We’ve all read a metric ton of marketing articles telling us that “A mobile marketing strategy is a must.”

If it feels like you’ve been hearing that forever, it’s because people have actually been spewing that advice for nearly a decade. That type of article started cropping up way back in 2008, according to Google Trends:

Several years later, you’ve likely (hopefully) got a mobile strategy in place; your landing pages are mobile responsive and your emails scale for many different screen sizes.

You’ve adapted to the new reality because you’ve accepted that this is just the way things are now:

But with sobering stats like that and #mobilegeddon behind us, simply having a mobile marketing strategy isn’t enough anymore.

As Chris Goward, CEO of conversion optimization agency WiderFunnel, explained in our recent Unwebinar, if you want to be successful, you’ve got to have an optimized mobile marketing strategy – one that you’re constantly refining and improving.

To help with that, Chris shared a three-pronged approach to mobile optimization that will help you stay ahead of the curve (and score more conversions). Read on for a summary of his process – or check out the webinar recording here.

The trinity of mobile optimization

On the webinar, Chris shared a diagram which broke down his approach to mobile CRO:

A scientific method: for testing your hypotheses and refining the tactics from elements #1 and #2

Let’s dig a little deeper into each of these elements to get a better idea of how it all fits together into a killer, constantly-improving mobile CRO strategy.

Persuasion marketing

The first ingredient of your optimized mobile marketing strategy should be a healthy dose of persuasion marketing.

If you’re a CRO buff, you’re likely already intimately familiar with a lot of this groundwork. It’s the intuitive (but super essential) stuff that will never change, regardless of which device prospects are using:

Using social proof, compelling CTAs, and other triggers that motivate prospects to take action

All pretty straightforward so far, but this is when things get a bit deeper.

Experience design

Experience design is all about minding the experience you’re creating for your mobile users. It’s about understanding their state of mind and facilitating interactions that are unique to the mobile experience.

The first step in doing that, Chris explained, is understanding that mobile optimization isn’t just about the device:

Turn weaknesses into opportunities for improvement

You’ll be left with a list of optimization opportunities – and all you have to do is pick one and run your first A/B test.

Psst: if you’re wondering how you can start prioritizing these tests, check out this article by Chris about the PIE method – a straightforward formula for prioritizing your tests based on three criteria: potential, importance and ease.

Always keep learning and optimizing

With every test you run, be sure to debrief and reflect on what you’ve learned about your users.

As much as your end goal is to lift conversions, it’s also to gain insight that you can learn from and apply to all your marketing efforts.

And as Chris suggested, look for opportunities for borrowing insight across tests – and even across channels:

Because your mobile users and desktop users are the same people, your testing efforts across channels don’t exist in a silo. You can learn insights from your mobile tests that you can then apply to your landing page and campaign optimization on any channel.

No optimization effort is ever complete, but testing consistently and borrowing insights across channels will bring you closer to the unattainable goal of a perfect conversion rate.

About Amanda Durepos

As Unbounce’s Blog Editor, Amanda Durepos curates and crafts content to help marketers be better at their jobs. When she’s not managing the editorial calendar for the Unbounce Blog, she’s wrangling internal and external subject matter experts, helping them educate other marketers in an entertaining and actionable way. You can follow her on Twitter but she’s mostly just making puns.